Vol. 423 No. 5
8 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Taoiseach the numbers on the live register for September, 1992; if he will also give the figures using the same method of compilation and categorisation which was used up to March, 1990; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The number of persons on the Live Register on 25 September, 1992 was 287,099. This did not include (a) 5,200 persons who were removed from the register in May 1992 following a statistical review of the coverage of the series or (b) 14,640 persons on pre-retirement allowance and pre-retirement credits schemes. The sum total of all three figures is 306,939.
Is this not an admission by the Government that they have misled the public by trying to indicate that our unemployment figures are 287,099 when the reality is that there are 306,700 unemployed? Simply giving people different titles does not result in their being employed.
The Deputy's question is essentially statistical.
A Cheann Comhairle:——
Please Deputy Mitchell, restrain yourself. I repeat, the Deputy's question is essentially statistical and therefore, matters of policy should not arise. If he wants to seek replies appertaining to policy he must put down appropriate questions.
May I rephrase my question? Would the Minister agree that the figure of 287,099 is not correct, that it is an inaccurate reflection of the number of people unemployed in this State and the real figure for the number of people unemployed is 306,000-odd?
I would not agree. Every month since these changes occurred the Deputy has put down the same question and asked the same supplementaries. Each time I have replied that the statistical review——
The Minister of State should get a new reply.
——which led to the change was carried out by an expert group established under the aegis of the Central Review Committee of the Programme for Economic and Social progress. The group recommended that the statistical treatment of persons on week-on-week-off working arrangements and self-employed persons formerly on the register should be regularised. In reaching their recommendations the expert group had regard to internationally accepted principles on the measurement of unemployment. Those on the PRETA and the PRECS schemes which were introduced in March and August 1990, respectively, make a declaration that they have retired from the labour market and are removed from the register on this basis. Therefore, I could not accept the Deputy's statement.
The Minister will not deny that 306,939 people are paid the equivalent of unemployment assistance each week. What percentage of the workforce is represented by that figure?
I suggest that the Deputy put down a question and I will answer it in due course.
Will the Minister not tell us?
A final question, Deputy De Rossa.
The Minister has again tried to justify massaging the figures by reference to the Programme for Economic and Social Progress and to international norms. Will he admit to this House that the 14,640 people on pre-retirement payments do not have jobs, that they are unemployed?
I do not have to admit that. Anyone who knows anything about either of those schemes would realise that these people have no jobs as they have retired from the labour market.
They retired in order to get a pension, not a pre-retirement pension.
We come now to deal with Priority Questions addressed to the Minister for Social Welfare. Question No. 9 in the name of Deputy Jim Mitchell. We are embarking now upon Priority Questions. Let us try to dispose of the five questions therein within the 15 minutes provided for in our Standing Orders.
